The first ever Deloitte Digital + LaunchPad Innovation Challenge was a huge success with 117 students registering for a seven day sprint to create a product, service or technology to address trends shaping the digital experience. Students worked independently and with LaunchPad alumni mentors around three challenges:
- Trust in a digital world
From cybersecurity to blockchain, tomorrow’s winning digital business will transform the way they share data to earn trust. How can an enterprise innovate to increase trust?
- Connectivity in a digital world
From virtual fandom, concerts, sports and e-gaming, large scale venues, to re-imagined retail experiences, workspaces, conferences and meetings, travel, learning, and more, how can an enterprise harness digital innovation to build better connectivity with customers, employees, and stakeholders?
- Experience in a digital world
From social commerce to influencer experiences, to the future of the Web, how can an enterprise utilize digital innovation to personalize a user’s interaction with an organization?
The three winning teams each earned a $500 award as well as personalized mentoring from Deloitte Digital
Moody Mag
Team Members: Jennie Bull, Emma Leuders, Margil Ghandi, Ruzan Pithawala
Moody Mag is a sex-education and self-love community platform that aims to empower and educate people on topics of sex-positivity. Founders Jennie and Emma started Moody Mag due to their frustration with the lack of transparency surrounding these topics, and they wanted to create a safe space to connect and guide people, with the goal of making the subject of sex less taboo. Moody Mag is nearly 100 members strong with their first magazine already published as of last April.
CommUnity
Team Members: Ben Simpson, Jada Knight, Souurabh Gavane, Katy Arons
CommUnity is an on-campus peer-to-peer connection platform centered around the exchange of goods and services. This app gives college students the capability to request rides from their peers, sell new and used items, seek peer-led class tutoring, offer specialized services to one another, and much more. The goal of CommUnity is to give students a new set of tools to build deeper relationships with peers around campus, support student-owned small businesses, and create new avenues for financial gain.
TuneTime
Team Members: Zach Goldstein, Ben Smrtic, Jack Ramza
Looking for that next catchy song to add to your playlist? TuneTime is a social-oriented music streaming platform that gives users the capability of broadening their musical taste by sharing their favorite songs with friends. Every day, the app gives you two minutes to find a song to post to your feed. Users are then able to like and comment on songs posted by their friends, creating community among music lovers. The songs you post are compiled under the “Tunes” section of your profile, while songs that you like are compiled under the “Likes” section. Both can also be made into a playlist in your preferred external streaming platform, such as Apple Music or Spotify.
The LaunchPad would also like give a shout out the student mentors, alumni, Deloitte Digital leaders, Syracuse University faculty, and all the other student teams that came together to make this event a huge success.
Special thanks to Amos Cohen ’20 (finance and information technology), a LaunchPad alum who is product manager at Deloitte Digital who worked with the LaunchPad to plan and execute the event.
Story by Jack Rose ’24, Blackstone Global Fellow